Teenagers pitch business ideas to Ikea

A brand new program in southeast Michigan is giving kids in Canton a probability. Black United Fund brings teens to Ikea and lets them pitch their self-created business ideas to an open store leadership team.

One of the judges of this system sat down with talk to this system participants concerning the recent opportunity.

Future entrepreneur and winner of the show Brendan White, a grade 11 student, spoke about his plans for the longer term.

“I would like to have my own real estate agency and start making passive income, for example by selling vending machines,” he said.

Knowing how necessary it was to make impression on the Ikea board, Brendan didn’t take the meeting evenly.

“I did a little bit of research before coming in today,” he told the outlet. “I felt like I had to make an impression, a big impression. I can be a little nervous, so I’m still working on that.”

On Aug. 22, he and 15 other Detroit highschool students met with Canton Ikea business leaders, each presenting marketing ideas that would potentially be brought to life by the multimillion-dollar company through its Retail Business Program — which is partnering with the Black United Fund to make all of it occur.

Carlotta Tutt Holloway, a member of BUF, explained: “We wanted to make sure they learned from the experiences of some of the best retailers.”

She added: “A lot of students don’t realise that these types of opportunities exist, so we wanted to make sure they were able to do it knowing that they could become marketing experts and that they could start their own business.”

The programme lasts per week and focuses on representation, supporting leadership and equality.

Kevin Matthews, Ikea’s regional marketing manager, added, “Coming from the Detroit area originally. Being a young black kid who didn’t understand the types of positions available in creative spaces. It just seemed like the right thing to do. To expose other black and brown kids to opportunities and positions that we might not know about.”

“I wanted to make sure there was an African-American leader included, so I felt it was important to be a part of that.”

Brendan won the competition with the concept of ​​bringing Detroit rapper Skilla Baby to the shop. He’ll spend the subsequent 12 months working with furniture retailers to proceed to develop his business instincts.